Consultant tells council Idaho Falls Power should prioritize visionary leadership and people skills in GM search

A consultant who led an executive search exercise for Idaho Falls Power told the Idaho Falls City Council that the city should seek a general manager with strong strategic vision, change-leadership experience and an ability to work across departments and with other utilities.

Lee Taylor summarized an anonymized survey of about 23 participants that included council members, division directors and Idaho Falls Power staff. Taylor said governance and strategy, external leadership and safety culture ranked among the highest competencies respondents prioritized. She advised council to focus interview questions on those competencies and on candidates’ ability to lead organizational change without jeopardizing financial or operational stability.

Council members pressed on the survey’s apparent emphasis on industry influence over customer engagement. A councilor said community-facing communication and ratepayer outreach should be at least as important as external relationships with industry groups; Taylor replied the weights reflected respondents’ selections and that the mix of respondents (division directors, council, staff) influenced those results.

City staff said the job posting is already public and the recruitment timeline calls for the posting to remain open through March 22, followed by remote screenings and then in-person interviews. Staff described a phased interview process that would involve the mayor and panels of directors, aiming to name a finalist in May and have a new GM start in late May or June.

The council agreed the survey will help craft more targeted candidate questions and suggested the recruitment include behavioral-style inquiries about managing change, developing employees and collaborating across departments.